Goddess Of Dragons
by AstralTwilight
Summary: Things are not as they seem on Berk. One child has made big changes around Berk, but can generations of bloodshed really be forgotten so easily? Can the dragons really fit into the mold Hiccup has imagined for them? To only complicate matter Hiccup found a Nightfury egg one that should have been dead long ago but decides to hatch. An OC Insert story.
1. Ch1 Prolog

She opened her eyes to see...nothing. She went to move her body only to feel nothing. She was in a space devoid of sensory input yet only felt mild concern for the situation. This was definitely one of Astral's strangest dreams. Then suddenly there was light, a distinctly white light coming from the floor which somehow seemed solid. From what material it was made of she couldn't fathom. There was however a white table not far in front of her. At it where two white chairs one close to her and one on the opposite side that sat a man. He had short blond hair and blue eyes. His skin was fair and unmarked, his frame six feet tall and athletically thin and adorned with defined muscle. He wore white robes that reminded her of a hospital get up. In fact with all the white around she was beginning to think this was some super strange hospital dream. For some reason it just felt polite of her to sit down and at the moment she did her body reappeared and her emotions distant like a dream now felt very present. This was now the most vivid dream she had ever had. If it weren't so unrealistic she'd think she was awake. From the other side of the table the man spoke breaking her from her daze.

"You know what this is don't you?" The man asked Astral. His stare spoke of curiosity.

"Uh, nope. What is it?" Astral countered.

His curious look turned to a frown. "This is the after life." He revealed hoping he wouldn't have have to dance around the task at hand too long.

"Is that so." Astral responded with mild curiosity. "So is this hell? Would be torment to be stuck with just you in this...place." She said with a smirk crossing her face.

"No you're dead. I know you've dabbled in lucid dreaming but every time you've succeeded you got so excited you would wake yourself up. That isn't happening now and it's not going to happen even if you wanted it to." He said his voice commanding and emanating with authority.

Astral looked around and tried to will anything up with her imagination. She had a strong one, but nothing changed. It was still surreal, but she was beginning to take it seriously. Still had to be a dream though. "So how'd I die, tree collapse on me in my sleep? Assassination?" She'd have a sick sense of pride if someone actually went through the danger and trouble of assassinating her.

"Nope, you didn't have many enemies compared to others of your occupation and you had been perfectly healthy again, more than most. Up until all those energy drinks you had keeping yourself up to work gave you a heart attack." He said flatly.

Suddenly Astral remember last night or current night or whatever. She typically didn't drink anything caffeinated with the exception of tea unlike all the addicts out there, but really wanted to get this project finished and picked up possibly more than a few energy drinks. She did remember feeling super nauseous, her breathing becoming labored, and her arms a little numb. she just thought maybe it upset

her stomach and really needed sleep, having fallen back in her chair for that. Suddenly realization dawned on her. She was dead.

There wasn't a word between the two for a very long time. Astral was very sad over the life that was gone especially over something so stupid. She started to regret working so much rather than looking for a boyfriend. On the other hand though she was also relieved to find there was an after life and was curious about what happened from here, but with a healthy amount of trepidation. "So what happens now. Am I going to be judged." Astral asked with a slight amount of fear. She never believed in god and even worse she came to the conclusion if there was one she wouldn't support it in anyway not unless it was different from all the religions she had researched.

"No." He again said distributing flatly. "I mean normally that's what would happen, I'm pretty sure. Not very interested in it honestly. Normally I don't concern myself with however your universe functions. But I need someone for something and right now you're the candidate in front of me. So how'd you like to be reincarnated.

Astral's head was starting to spin itself in circles. There was so much to take in. She was dead that was still settling. The guy was apparently a god from another universe. Gave more credit to the multiverse theory and apparently he was offering to reincarnated her in exchange for doing something for him. She didn't know what to think except one thing. Something she had reached a conclusion to long ago. "Absolutely not. I refuse to repeat all the mistakes I've made and the lessons I've learned. Either it's me or I'd rather not exist."

The man gave an amused grin. You'll still have your memories, you'll still be you in everything but your body. I can't really take that and it wouldn't suit the task I have for you anyways. It's strike a deal with me or be turned to the gods of your universe and they aren't going to be happy you didn't play their game of religion."

Somehow knowing it was a game made sense to Astral and she did not look forward to meeting those gods. Besides wasn't like she was giving anything up she was already dead. "What is it you want and who are you?" Astral asked.

"My name is Cruinne and I need a goddess of dragons. They have long been without and done well considering, but now their numbers are falling. You have no strings attached to your gods, your mind is strong, and you are conveniently dead. So you can either take up the title of goddess of dragons or I can return you to the gods of your universe."

Astral supposed an after life experience should be chaotic and this was mind numbing. But this was a win-win situation. He would get what he wanted and she would be alive again as a goddess no less. She was of course losing her family and everything she'd known, but she had bad relations with her family anyways and not the typical families tend not to get along but the CPS should have been involved kind of family. And was dead anyways soo "alright I'll do it."

"You sure?" Cruinne asked. "Know that if you accept you'll be taken from this universe, you'll have strings attached to me so nobody could come along and do something like I am doing.

Astral didn't even need to think about it. Once her mind was made it up it was made up, she was going through with this. She nodded her head in confirmation. "Yes."

"Very well, I'll try to be sure you keep the same name." Cruinne said.

"What?" Astral blurt wondering how she could possibly have a different name. That was as far as her thoughts went though as abruptly she went unconscious.

When she came back to it was much the same as last time. Nothing to see just blackness. It wasn't the same though, it wasn't a nothingness void. There was certainly something but it was hard to describe to herself. And she felt strange too. Her body felt stiff and inflexible. Wait that wasn't it well kinda. She was curled up. Trying to uncurl she was met with concave walls in all directions. She was stuck and she wasn't breathing! Desperately she struggled against her cage, she needed to breath. She could feel her cage moving or wobbling rather but nothing she did so much as scratched it. At least that's how it felt she couldn't see it. She was going to run out of air soon or at least she thought she would. Her body wasn't actually demanding it she was just panicking that she wasn't breathing. In desperation she could think of nothing else to do but scream hoping someone would hear her and rescue her. No sound came out in her strange void cage but suddenly it seemed to squeeze her body. She tried even harder to do what she thought was screaming. Astral didn't want to die again. Especially not in such an equally pathetic way. Suddenly there was a very loud explosion and her cage burst apart and light came pouring in from everywhere. She screamed again this time an actual scream both from the shock of the explosion and sudden assault on her eyes from the light. She shut her eyelids but the light still shone through, though less intense and painful.

Slowly she braved opening her eyes they stung but she pushed past it. What she saw was very strange. She was in a primitive room of some sort. There was a roughly carved wooden bed and other furniture around. That was all strange enough but that wasn't even the half of it. The room looked super large because she was the size of a toy! That or this was a giant's room. The ceiling had a hole. In fact the whole room looked like a bomb had gone off. Debris was all over the place it was amazing she could tell it was someones personal room. She herself was on the floor on top of what looked to be once some sort of cloth below her. Was hard to tell now with only a few strands left. Egg shells were scattered about the room. She realized suddenly, the egg was her egg, her cage she had once been in, and somehow the point of origin on that explosion was her egg. Hesitantly she tried to turn her neck to get a look at herself, moving her body was difficult and unfamiliar. It did't just swivel though, her neck was much longer than she was used to, and actually wrapped around somewhat. Looking behind her she saw she was now indeed a dragon of some sort. There were jet black leathery wings hanging limply off the side of her equally black body and scaled. There was a tail behind her also limp and she was now a quadruped. Funny enough she was expecting to see a snout in front of her but didn't. Wasn't human though. She didn't see the nose everyone ignored on their faces. Astral tried to move her new extra appendages and did manage to twitch them around but otherwise had no idea how to use them. She could stand up easily enough. It was so strange being on four legs but her body was comfortable with it.

Suddenly something huge and black fell onto the floor of the room from the gaping hole in the ceiling. Seemed to be intentional as it was standing and growling, I froze terrified. It was a dragon and it was huge at least compared to me. It's large green eyes scanning the room and the moment it spotted me it also froze though clearly not out of fear. We just stared at each other and after a moment I realized it looked as I did, only giant. Then two humans ran into the room through the equally blown apart doorway. One was a very large human with long red facial hair who looked like he lifted weights all day and drove a Harley and was currently wielding a large axe at the ready. The other was much smaller he looked like a 10 year old but the maturity on his face revealed him a older teen. He had short brown hair and green eyes.. The moment they burst in the other dragon leapt at me and I screamed while trying to run away, but only really succeeded in tripping myself. It didn't eat me like I expected, but instead curled around me preventing me from escaping anywhere while it growled at the larger human.

Astral's body decided it had had enough and she fainted.


	2. Ch2 Baby Steps

Astral slowly came to only to be again greeted by darkness. The sun just might not have come up yet. Wait didn't she fall asleep in her chair? When did she start laying down. Whatever, wasn't as strange as her dreams. She'd definitely had crazy dreams before, but that one certainly won first place. It was so vivid too. Then suddenly, what sounded like hurricane wind being blown through a window or something startled her. She screamed in fright but it came out like an animal cry of some sort. That'd be a new one for people to tease her about if it ever came up again. Suddenly light poured in as a stiff leathery blanket was lifted into the air. Only it wasn't a stiff leathery blanket it was a wing to that giant dragon from her dreams it was right above her. Again she squealed trying to back up, but the creature had it's huge body encircled around her. It's head stared down at her from above and cooed. As if trying to comfort her. And it sorta worked. The dragon wasn't being very threatening even if it did have her trapped. So everything she dreamt was all real. She died and was reincarnate as a dragon that emerged from an egg. Wait egg, so she was a baby dragon. Did that mean this was her mother. No something; she didn't know what, told her he was male. So it was her father? She had never considered being reincarnated meant gaining a new family. She had expected to show up full grown or something and just have to figure it out on her own. She realized what that hurricane wind was. It was her father's breathing. He really was huge or rather she was small. Then again even in her old body she could tell he would have still been big, likely weighing more than even the worlds fastest human.

Where was she? Again familiarizing herself with how to walk she approached her fathers tail and attempted to climb up it to look at the other side. She wasn't doing very good though and her father had to use his head to push her up it. "Thanks...uh...dad." It appeared she was in the same room she hatched from. All the debris was cleaned up and some of the furniture replaced. There was still a big hole in the ceiling though. Her location was on top of her fathers tail who was on top of that roughly carved bed. Looking behind her she confirmed that she woke up on the fabric of that bed.

"Hey bud, mind if I see him." Spoke the brown haired adolescent from earlier. He was also sitting on the bed to the large dragons left. The voice startled Astral and she fell backwards off her fathers tail and gave out a scared high pitched yelp. And now she was stuck on her back with her wings splayed out. The human scooted closer and began to reach a hand into her fathers cocoon, but he gave out a short and quiet growl while shaking his head in the universal no and the human backed off complaining. Though Astral couldn't tell she wasn't understanding anything it said. The human was not speaking English. It was silly of her to expect that humans from a different universe would speak English. It bothered her that she couldn't understand anything about the species she once was for 23 years of her life. Was as if all that time meant nothing. The bigger issue now though was she was stuck on her back and it felt very wrong. She tried rolling but the way she rolled over as a human was too different than as a dragon. She managed to get on her side but her own wing was getting in the way of her touching the bed.

"Uh dad...could use some help here." Astral said. Her father only continued to look at her as if expecting something more. Even the human was staring at her. Despite the lack of immediate danger she was beginning to panic. Astral began flailing about trying to get traction of any sort. Her foot pushed against her wing a couple times eliciting a pained yelp as it stretched further than it was meant to. The human tried to reach in again but her dad growled at the human once more. Though the growl wasn't meant for her Astral still stopped her flailing as well. 'Alright, calm down. I just need to think.' Astral thought to herself. 'I'm never going to get anywhere with my wing in the way." She tried experimenting with her new limbs and eventually figured out how to move her wings. She pulled them in close to her body. Now her wing was out of the way, yet still couldn't flip herself upright. Wait now she got it. She was lying on her left side so she pulled in her 2 left proportionately bulky legs and pushed against the bed with her left wing. Then she was upright again. Astral let out a triumphant "Yes!" at her success. She wasn't used to how it sounded in dragon language though.

Speaking of speaking Astral looked up at her father. "Can you understand me?" Astral asked. The response she got with grunts and other dragony stuff she didn't understand. Astral cried out growing very upset. "Great for all I know I agreed to be reincarnated into a species that wasn't sentient. And goddess? I'm a freaking baby, I still feel pain and can probably still die just as easily. All it would take is just a single bite from this dragon!" Again she was working off of her understanding of a god. For all she knew in Cruinne's universe gods were just basic leaders. Would make more sense then giving someone the great powers and immortality that she imagined.

"I think he's upset you didn't help him Toothless." said Hiccup. To them it just sounded like a normal very upset hatchling. Toothless bent down and started licking Astral. "Eww! That's disgusting, don't do that!" Astral complained only to have her father continue. She squeaked each time he licked her and told him to stop. Eventually she only squeaked seeing as he didn't seem to listen or understand her. "He's going to need a name. Wait, is it a he?" Hiccup asked his dragon. Toothless shook his head no before resuming his affection. "What do you name the first of your kind we've seen. And a female that hatched from an egg that should be long since dead no less. Hmm what about Astral?" He said not knowing why he said it. What train of logic led to that? Astral went silent and stared at the human prompting her father to stop in curiosity. She still didn't understand what he said but somehow knew he spoke her name. Her father repeated it as well and despite it coming from a dragon this time in a different language, she knew it was her name and stared up at him.

Apparently now it was time to get up as her father stepped onto the floor. His cocoon having vanished with him she was surprised to find herself missing it. It blocked out this strange new world helping her not think about it too much. She started to follow after him but before even reaching the edge of the bed her father turned around and gave a soft growl to her. He then took off dragging an unwilling human with him. That growl terrified her. Why was he taking off. Was he abandoning her? Was that upside down thing some sort of test and she failed. She'd probably be crying if she could instead she was emitting whining sounds not too dissimilar from a dog. Astral decided to go after him and walked over to the edge of the bed. The floor was far down though. Probably two of her body lengths. Well then again she had a pretty long tail. Looking back at her tail she decided it was one of her body lengths. But she was far longer than she was tall. After all she was a quadruped now. 'No pain no gain especially in this world I guess." With that she jumped down and...nothing happened. She did feel like fell a ways but barely felt anything upon landing. Oh right, there were some advantages to being small.

Astral then made her way to the door not really knowing how she planned on opening it. Hopefully it didn't close all the way and she could push it open. Before she had a chance to get close though the door opened and her father came in closely followed by the human. Her father made deliberate steps right towards her and Astral crouched in fear. He coughed or choked on something clearing his throat for some reason and then opened his mouth and went to scoop her up and swallow her. "No Toothless not in my room noo!." Hiccup complained. Astral knew it, she'd messed something up and now she was becoming food to her own father. With his mouth right over her he vomited right on top of her and then lifted his head back up to look at her expectantly. "Eww, what is this my punishment. You just love being gross don't you. Why don't you lick me now and clean this up." It was mostly dropped on her head and spilled around her. Now she was going to need a bath. Where would she even go for that. Suddenly she became aware of something rather good smelling assaulting her nose. It only took a few sniffs to realize it was the vomit the smelt so good. Why the heck did it smell good. Vomit was suppose to be more disgusting smelling than it was looking. Her father just seemed to look at her concerned. Was this another test? Was he giving her another chance. She'd no doubt die on her own without someone to help her. She had no idea what she was doing. As gross as it was and as many cringing shivers it gave her she just had to find if it tasted as good as it smelled. She now realized just how ravenously starving she was. Hesitantly Astral dipped her head towards it and took a lick. It wasn't bad tasting. It tasted every so slight good. Her hunger got the better of her though and she began lapping it up cleaning the floor of every drop. When she was finished her father bent down to lick her head and clean it off. Even though he was cleaning her she still squeaked. Hiccup couldn't help but let out an "aww" at the scene unraveling before him. Astral understood that. "This is not adorable this is disgusting and undignified." Her father choked up some more food and brought his head over her again. She knew what was going on and as gross as it was she was still starving. This was going to be the new norm and she was not going to die again. Beside it wasn't bad tasting. She opened her mouth and let her father pour it in. Did her father not have any teeth?

Once Astral was all full she felt like taking a nap. She began making her way back to the bed wondering how'd she jump back on it when her father called her name. Astral turned around to see him grunt and motion with his head to follow. "But I'm full, I just feel like sleeping now." Astral complained. Naturally nobody understood her. She began walking to the doorway where he stood but before she made it he came walking up to her. Astral stopped wondering what he wanted. He went behind her and used his head to gently nudge her along. "But I was already headed that way?" She continued forward and as she did so her father used one of his right paw to lift her right wing up. She now became aware she'd been dragging her wings along the ground this whole time. She pulled them in close to her body and resumed moving forward. The larger dragon continued to follow behind and after a few yards made another adjustment this time lifting her tail up. "Oh right, that probably shouldn't drag too." Controlling her tail was a little more difficult at first. It wanted to fight her and throw her off balance. By the time they got to the doorway she got the hang of it though. "Wow it's a lot easier to walk now." Next were the steps down the stairs to the living room. This part would be easy, she just had to jump down them. Astral was determined not to need any correction on this part. She slowly made her way down jumping down one step at a time. When she'd finally reached the bottom Astral turned around to beam at her father. She'd wish there was someway to express how proud she felt to him. Now he took the lead and led her out the front door.

It took her eyes another second to adjust to the outside. It was much brighter. Took her even longer to take in the sight. Actually she hadn't even begun that. Though she realized something very strange. Why the heck were there so many humans around. At her universe dragons were recorded in every culture around the globe. All except the Asian wingless serpent like dragons were considered mortal enemies to man kind. The two did not get along. Yet here she stood albeit not very high off the ground and before her was a village of humans and dragons living in the same area. What was also strange is these humans looked like vikings. And not the vikings back home that did not wear horned helmets. These ones did. It looked to be an expression of ones self as each viking seemed to have a unique helmet. It was all overwhelming and huge in her eyes. The huts scattered about were skyscrapers to her. She didn't feel like she'd ever get use to that.

Toothless and Hiccup were moving along and Astral quickly snapped to running up to trot by her father. 'Where we going?' Is what Astral wanted to ask if she could actually speak to anyone. She was going to have to pay attention to both the dragons and the humans on this trip to wherever. She needed to learn how to communicate somehow and if dragons weren't sentient or didn't have much of a language. Though her father seemed to be too intelligent for just an animal. That and why would Cruinne need a leader of dragons if they were just animals. They had to be capable of complex organization in order to be led.

Before they'd even reached any street that could be considered busy it became quickly apparent that she was a spectacle for some reason. Nearly ever single person they passed wanted to see her up close. Even though she did understand their language she could tell they thought she was just the cutest thing they had ever seen. Which Astral was glad about that part. Better a cute dragon than an ugly one. The further into the village they went the more crowed the space around her became. It came to the point she was trotting right underneath her father to try and avoid them. Another new thing she learned was her sense of smell was off the charts at least compared to what she was used to. She could smell everything and she didn't even know what 98% of everything was. She just tried to tune it out and keep up for now. There was other stuff as well. Her hearing was far better as well as her sight. While that all sounded great it actually wasn't. It was very overwhelming. The villagers excitement over her hurt her ears. It was actually a little disorienting. Wait she had ears? She really had to find a mirror at some point. Wait no she didn't need one she had her father. Poking out from under him she took a good look at his face. She watched as flaps on his head seemed to respond to the direction of sound which helped her notice the same happening on her own head. Her father looked down at her curiously and she just dipped right back beneath him.

It seemed someone had the power to stop their tour as a blue eyed girl with blond hair tied in a braid behind her approached the group of now four with her included. She was about the same size as the brown haired guy who Astral was now going to call Toothpick. Because for both all the beefy vikings around and the dragons, they could use his bones as one.

"So what was with the explosion yesterday?" Astrid asked Hiccup.

"Well turns out it was a dragon hatching." Hiccup answered plainly.

"A dragon?" Astrid responded surprised. What kind of dragon egg causes an explosion that large? And we aren't anywhere near Snogletog."

"I'm just as perplexed as you are Astrid. Remember that egg we got from trader Johann. Well." Hiccup gestured dramatically at Toothless with both his hands.

Astrid looked over at Toothless confused. It was only then she noticed the dark shape underneath him. She crouched down to get a better look and when she saw Astral she gasped putting a hand over her mouth.

"Am I really that surprising. How have you not already heard the news I'm new in town." Astral criticized the blondy. That was her new name, Blondy.

"A baby Nightfury. But how? That egg should have never hatched." Astrid asked.

"I don't know but here she is." Answered Hiccup.

"So it's a girl. Does she have a name yet?" Astrid asked reaching her hand towards the baby Nightfury.

Astral backed away from Blondy's advance. Her father didn't seem to mind so she wasn't a threat, but Astral did not feel like being touched and especially not picked up if that's what Blondy planned.

"She's shy isn't she." Astrid added pulling away and standing up.

"Her names Astral and yea she's a little strange too. She's a little slow. That might be normal though. This is the first baby Nightfury we've seen and first one besides Toothless. I'm thinking since Nightfuries have shown to be so intelligent maybe their young take longer to mature, kinda like our own. That would also help explain why they are most likely having a population problem. The longer an animal typically takes to raise it's young the less they have in quantity. The longer it takes to mature the longer it's vulnerable. In all the time we've been searching we have heard of no one sighting any Nightfuries and we've never even found any bones. These two may very well be the last of their kind." Hiccup ranted.

"Well at least it looks like Toothless is taking well to being a father." Astrid teased the big dragon patting it on the nose.

Toothless gave a snort in response.

Then another human joined the group. This one she recognized. It was the big bulky one inside the house when she hatched from her egg. Her father had growled at it back then so he was a threat. Yet he spoke to Toothpick and Blondy casually. "So this is the creature that blew up my house." Stoic said his voice loud and well stoic.

"Sorry dad. We didn't know it was going to hatch." Hiccup apologized.

"Clearly. Suppose I should meet the new trouble maker. Gods know the Nightfuries have it out for me." Stoic said crouching down. "Purple eyes...that's not something you see everyday. Come'ere you little bugger, let me get a better look at ya."

Astral hissed while backing up closer to her fathers hind legs. Why wasn't her dad doing anything she thought he was a threat.

"You really aren't very good with dragons are you sir." Astrid said to Stoic.

"Eh I'll leave that to you guys. I've got work to do. Keep it out of trouble Hiccup." Stoic said before taking off to Astral's relief. Hiccup couldn't tell if his fathers comment was far his own sake or the baby dragons.

To Astral's further displeasure more adolescents arrived no doubt friends of Toothpick's in this everyone knows everybody village. It seems they heard the news as the first thing they did was oohhing and awwwing at her. She was getting sick of this, of being some sort of art to be admired or something. Well actually she liked that. What she didn't like was all the attention at once all the sensory input was frying her brain. Some fat guy, a pair of twins, and what looked like a human that could totally pass as a dwarf if he had any facial hair were chatting up an ear splitting storm. And to top it off two of them smelt really awful. As safe as she felt under her father she was getting out of here. Without warning Astral bolted out from underneath Toothless and just sprinted off. She didn't know where she was going but that didn't matter. Anywhere away from humans worked for her. Her second day as a dragon and she already didn't consider herself human. She tripped on herself and tumbled a bit, but got right back up and continued onward.

"Wow look at her go." Commented Tuffnut while the others shared surprised comments Toothless being the most notable of them. The large Nightfury sprinted after his charge. It took him a moment but the much larger and faster dragons easily caught up and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. Astral squeaked as she was hoisted into the air from her neck by her father. The really terrifying part was her whole body went limp against her will as a result. Toothless looked for a secluded enough spot and found one between two buildings. He set Astral down and was glad to see she didn't take off after he did so. He lay down and draped a wing over her.

Apparently father knows best. After catching her he gave her exactly what she wanted. It was hardly far from humans but the wing muffled all the sounds. She could still hear them clearly but it wasn't irritating like before. She was suddenly reminded about how tired she was and now far more so after that little stunt. She nuzzled up next to her fathers body and fell asleep faster than she thought possible.

"What was that all about?" Astrid asked what everyone was thinking after the group had caught up. Toothless warned them off with a low growl if any of them got too close.

"She was probably overwhelmed and panicked. This might be a problem if she remains a celebrity." Hiccup enlightened them.

"She's going to have celebrity status for as long as she's that cute." Ruffnut commented.

"Hey bud, is she alright." Hiccup asked Toothless while he approached closer without resistance from the dragons. Toothless lifted his wing just a little bit to show Astral sleeping against him.

"Yup she's going to be the talk of the town for awhile." Said Astrid.

"Come on, we need to get her home Toothless." Hiccup said. Toothless gave a soft growl as Hiccup reached under the wing. "It's alright bud. I'll try not to wake her."


	3. Ch3 One Month After Death

'Elevated position, check. Target in sight, check. Wings at the ready?' Astral looked to her left and right to check her wings were fully extended. She'd gone a full month without learning how to fly. This was unacceptable. She had wings and she was going to learn how to use them. First goal was to just figure out how to glide. Astral was currently atop a certain dresser. Wasn't the same one she hatched atop. She kinda broke that. It got replaced and the roof fixed already as well. Astral squatted and prepared to launch. Her target was her father. Alright focus and launch. This should be simple right. Just stay forward and don't stall. Well apparently it wasn't simple as almost right away she began sliding to the right and then plummeting.

Astral yelped as she hit the floor and tumbled a bit. Toothless woke with a start searching for the location of his daughters distress. It wasn't actually of his blood but he decided to adopt her almost right away. Toothless approached Astral and gave a concerned croon before licking her. "I'm fine, I'm fine dad." Astral said despite not having breached the language barrier. She'd gotten use to the displays of affection. Besides actually wasn't all that bad. Now that she had scales it didn't feel gross it was just the thought of it and she'd gotten over that.

The little Nightfury made her way to the night stand in the room and jumped atop that before jumping back onto the dresser. It was actually really easy to climb with her claws if she messed up her jump, but Toothpick was not a fan of her scratching up his furniture. She didn't know what the big deal was. It was roughly carved and ugly anyways. She was doing it favor giving it some style by scratching it up. Alright, wings spread, crouched, and ready for attempt number two. Before she could try though her father brought his tail up right in front of her and stopped her from jumping. "Hey get out of the way. I need to do this. It didn't hurt much when I fell alright." She complained uselessly. Suddenly from the tip of her fathers tail spread a single fin. "What the heck. A whole month and I didn't know about this." She brought her own tail up in front of her view and experimented a bit before figuring out how to snap her own fins open. She had two though. She easily guessed it's purpose. It was like a birds tail feathers. Meant for steering and stability. Why did her father have only have one. He must have lost it in an accident or fight somehow. No wonder she never saw him go flying like the other dragons. Alright tail fins open aannnd her fathers tail was still in the way. She tried moving around to a different edge of the dresser but stopped her again. This time he turned his back side to her and opened the much larger fins at the base of his tail. "What? you got to be kidding me!" Astral turned herself around to try to see that spot on herself unsuccessfully. She really had to find a mirror one of these days. Feeling it out she eventually figured out how to open those as well. "Any other secrets you'd like to reveal to me while we're at it. No of course not." He finally moved his tail though.

Alright crouch and launch. And almost right away her nose began dipping down. Before she hit the ground though her father caught her with his head and placed her back on the dresser. 'Why the heck is it so hard just to glide!' Toothless reached up with one of his paws and adjusted each of her tail fins so they were in a slight upwards V shape. "Alright?" she said before launching herself. She was doing it! She was actually gliding. She began slowly rolling to her left this time and began to panic a little. She tried twisting her tail fin a bit angling it in the other direction and it worked. Though she screamed in her own surprise as she over corrected hard and went plummeting into the ground with another yelp. Her father approached and nuzzled her while crooning.

After that tender moment Astral made her way to the stairs and was about to jump down slowly that is. They were super steep steps. She had a better faster idea though. Spreading her wings, sub wings, and tail fins she leapt into the air. But before making it anywhere she was snatched out of the air by her father making her go limp. She hated it when he did that. He only seemed to do it when he was serious though. In fact looking down that was a long drop. Toothless made it down the stairs with Astral in his mouth before letting her go on the ground floor. "Thanks dad." Astral said before charging at the big front door and attempting to ram it open rather unsuccessfully with a squeak. Her father just went up and pushed it open with a paw. Astral sprinted out the door into the village. There were smells to learn!

As Astral sniffed around Toothless kept a close eye on her but almost right after he had left the home Hiccup confronted him. "Bud we need to talk." Hiccup said seriously. It was slightly uncharacteristic for the boy so he held Toothless's attention, at least that which he could spare. "It's been a month and as much as I also love Astral and we need to raise what is likely the only other Nightfury in existence, we have responsibilities to the tribe that also need attention." Hiccup motioned for Astrid to step up. "I'll take good care of her while you two catch up on the work that needs to be done." She said stepping up to Hiccup's side.

Toothless stared at the two an unamused look for Hiccup and a distrustful one for Astrid. He chuffed for Astral to come to him. She was not a fan of being pulled from figuring out how to use her nose but when dad called she came. Wasn't like she had much of a choice, he'd grab her if she didn't listen. Was so strange growing up again this time under the care of an overprotective parent. "Yes?" Astral asked. Toothless stomped a foot down next to Hiccup telling her to stay with him before he took off abruptly dashing off to none of them knew where. Astral looked up at Hiccup as if asking what that was all about. He seemed to actually understand but just shrugged his shoulders. Astral was quickly distracted by the smell of fish nearby. She sniffed the air trying to locate it's source and found herself slowly heading towards Blondy. Astrid bent down and revealed the fish she was hiding offering it to the hatchling. Astral sniffed it to test it. Blondy had never given her food before, but all seemed well. With that what might have been mistaken as hesitation was gone and she lunged forward to snap it out of her hands before she could preform some cruel trick like moving it out of reach like the twins once did to her. It was a small sardine perfect for her developing stomach. Blondy went to pick her up but Astral leapt back and hid behind Toothpics legs. It wasn't that she didn't trust her Astral was just not a fan of being dragon handled. Reminded her of how small and helpless she was compared to everything else. At least she was in a safe human settlement. Would be a hundred times more terrifying if she was being raised the natural dragon way. Blondy gave a sigh of defeat and disappointment as Astral had retreated. Astrid wondered how she was going to babysit this unpredictable little Nightfury.

Toothless returned and he wasn't alone. Stormfly followed right next to him. He gave no indication as to why he had brought her here but now that she was he seemed ready to take off. Toothless flipped hiccup over so he'd land on the dragons back and the boy got the idea. Before long the saddle was secure and with one marvelous leap and beat of his massive wings, the two were rocketing towards the clouds. Astral stared up in amazement and a pain of envy. Took her a moment to realize her father had left her with Blondy and her dragon. Anxiety quickly started to consume her. Her father had never been out of eyesight with her. He wouldn't let her go off anywhere on her own and now that he was gone she felt extremely vulnerable. Stormfly noticed the hatchlings distress and crooned while going in for a nuzzle. Astral for the second time jumped away. Blondey and her dragon seemed to conspire something before both moving away into town as if she was of no concern anymore. With them leaving Astral was alone and that was ever worse. She bounded after the two that her dad had chosen to keep an eye on her or at least one of em and they were doing a terrible job. The two giggled when she caught up with them. Blondy just went about the day as normal beside the little Nightfury she was carefully watching over. The little thing was so curious sniffing at every crack and crevice. At some point Astral had grown brave and decided to once again try flying without her father present. Stormfly and Astrid completely lost interest in everything else and began ogling at Astral attempting to glide. They became determined to help her at least glide in a straight path. It took a very long time and the other two girls hindered her far more than helped, but at last she was able to glide in a straight line...and that was it. She'd tried turning in the glide only to be greeted with her old nemesis gravity and it's accomplice the ground.

Their task accomplished as far as Stormfly and Astrid were concerned they moved on. Astrid needed to get her beloved axe sharpened and touched up so she headed over to Gobber's work forge. Just as they were about to walk through the entrance of Gobber's forge Stormfly shook her head as if casting something off and suddenly freaking out sprinting toward the entrance to try and intercept them. She was too late though Astrid and Astral were inside. The bird like dragon squawked and roared in alarm as she paced outside desperately trying to look in.

"What in the blazes is wrong with your dragon Astrid?" Gobber asked in equal alarm. He didn't want a frantic dragon wrecking his shop.

"I think Toothless charged her with watching the hatchling and she can't fit or see well in here. It's alright girl we'll only be a few moments."

Gobber only just then noticed Astral walking about on his floor. "So this is what's got the village all excited. I can see why. Ye'know between me and you I always though the other lil dragons were ugly. But ain't she a beauty."

As the humans did their business Astral explored around the workshop. There were weapons everywhere. Axes, swords, hammers, bows, but mostly axes. Having only seen replicas of such weapons in the other world it was quite the spectacle to see such a place loaded with them and intent on using them. If they were like the vikings of her world did they go on raids in other lands? She could see the vikings taking over the world if they had dragons. But then again maybe others had dragons. She really did not know anything about this world and being unable to communicate with anyone she wasn't going to be learning much soon. At least she could learn the weapons though. Jumping onto a shelf Astral planned on investigate the weapons up close. She didn't weigh much at least she didn't think so but her jumping on it caused the shelf to come crashing down. The weight of it all knocking on the ground and shaking the place especially the great hammers that were on it. The jostle dislodged a bunch of weapons hanging on display above the shelf and they slid off the nails that held em to the wall to all come falling towards her. Astral looked up and gave a shrill high pitched screech. Oddly only her current life flashed before her eyes as she watched the sharp and other deadly objects as big as herself plummet to her. By some miracle none impaled however she sustained many injuries all at once the most notable of which was a war hammer falling upon her tail. Astral screeched in pain, but could escape nowhere as the weapons pinned her at what seemed like every angle. She stood as still as possible, not daring to move her pain momentarily dulled by the adrenaline pumping through her. Astrid and even Gobber both gasped as they heard the ruckus and witness the weapons fall. They weren't in time to snatch the hatchling or any of the weapons. They quickly went to work clearing them away so they could take a look at the damage though. Just as they had removed the last weapon there was a loud roar before Toothless burst through the opening meant for customers viewing and ordering Gobber's wares. He roared again slamming his wings against both Astrid and Gobber, tossing them into opposite ends of the shop. He quickly examined Astral for any critical injuries and upon finding none picked her up by her scruff and headed back outside. He dropped her down and began nursing her wounds with licks crooning to comfort her. Astral continued giving out a quiet and constant dragonic cry as her adrenaline wore off and the pain really made itself known. Her tail felt broken and she had cuts all over the outline of her body but all were miraculously shallow. It had to have been divine intervention that prevented any life threatening injures or out right death, that or astronomical luck.

Stormfly cautiously approached to see for herself but was warned away by the very pissed Nightfury. She bowed her head and moved away in shame. Toothless wasn't letting anyone getting within a length of himself and when Astrid had approached he actually broke away from Astral for a moment to mock pounce at her and drive her away. Hiccup was allowed to get the closest and when he verified for himself that Astral wasn't in critical condition he chased after Astrid.

"What in Thor's name happened?" Hiccup asked Astrid perplexed and shaken by his dragons behavior.

"I don't know. I went in to have my axe sharpened and I heard a crash, next thing I knew there were weapons falling on her." Astrid answered frantically.

"Why did you bring her in Gobbers shop to begin with? That's no place for a baby viking or dragon." Hiccup emphasized the 'or dragon'.

Astrid didn't know what to say or feel. She was upset at messing up so badly and pissed at herself but also unwilling to accept she had messed up, that in some way it wasn't her fault she never did anything wrong. She was always the best at everything she did.

The couple weeks following the incident were the absolute worse for Astral. For starts there were the injuries that needed to heal. Thankfully they were quick to heal and she was back to full health. She thanked Cruinne that she was still alive. Though that brought up some questions. Did she worship him? She had never been the religious type before but she had met this god and not only did he give her another chance at life but also saved her from losing it. She supposed she wouldn't worship him persay but would for sure try and please him. Still wasn't too sure what it was he wanted her to do though. Wasn't like he left a bible behind. Anyways while she had been recovering of course she couldn't go back to gliding so after just learning how to glide in a straight line she was grounded. Was the worst feeling ever much worse than the pain of her injuries. There was one injury that was particularly bad though and still kinda healing and that was her tail. And sadly as her dad had taught her it was impossible to fly without her tail. So other reason was so miserable is she wasn't allowed to explore at least not without her fathering hovering like right above her. This was a whole new level to over protective. Was literally protecting her himself and protecting her from everything. At the very least though she was able to exercise her nose and was begin to get a handle on it at least the smells around berk. She also found she could literally smell strong emotions.

Today Astral kinda just sat on a warm rock in the sun with her father curled up around her. The only thing she wanted to do right now is fly but of course fate or whatever hated her. There was no Hiccup or Astrid around. Things had gotten rather odd between the trio. Toothless wasn't going anywhere near Blondy or rather wasn't allowed to come near him which meant Hiccup was torn with either spending time with Astrid or his dragon. That combined with the dragon rider training she learned he was in charge of and he smelled kinda musky sour most the time which Astral had identified as stress. Speaking of which he was at dragon training now. She supposed with nothing to do she might as well go watch him. Getting up she painfully started walking over to that part of the island. Turns out tail injury was just about as painful as a spine injury and made getting anywhere a literal pain. Toothless chuffed a sound of question and then concern as she got up. "Just got bored sitting here is all."

Finding the dug out arena with the cage over the top Astral found a nice sunny spot next to the cage to pier down in the pit below where basically all the kids on the island and only some adults were learning how to work with dragons. Astral found it odd it was mostly the kids doing so. Kinda made her sick there was a dragon training to begin with. She wasn't a fan of being treated like a flying horse and couldn't believe the other dragons put up with it. No doubt they'd been born and raised into it never knowing a better life. The only one to seem to treat his dragon as more than something to be ridden was Toothpick. No doubt some lucky or rather unlucky soul was going to chose her as their dragon when she grew up to an adult or worse before she made it to adult. She was not going to let herself be some animal to be ridden and fed. Though that did bring up the issue of consequences. If she refused to work with anyone would they refuse to feed her and did any of the dragons here know how to hunt. Depending on how long they've been domesticated they are probably completely reliant upon the vikings. Reborn into slavery just flippen perfect. At least she was basically the pet of the chiefs family. Seemed to have some perks. Her dad especially seemed to get away with most things including threatening everyone that gets close to her. Speaking of which Toothless seemed a little anxious sitting there next to her staring down at Hiccup. He must want to join him. Astral got up and began lumbering down there finding a corner to curl up in and watch from up close. Toothless seemed concerned at first following her into the ring and the duo distracted everyone as they entered. Eventually Toothless took his place at Hiccups side though still keeping an eye on her glancing back making sure she hasn't gone anywhere from time to time. From there things seemed to progress as normal. It was so obvious the difference between Hiccup and the others. He quite clearly treated Toothless as his best friend and not just some mount to be pet and fed. He also had a respect for the other dragons as well. She hopped she would just get to stay with him. She wouldn't mind being considered his if she wasn't already. At least not minding as far as not having a choice went. She supposed only time would tell.

Suddenly a load horn of some sort sounded reverberating was had to be the entire island. How the heck did they have something capable of such a sound. Suddenly everyone frantic and serious was jumping on their dragons and heading out of the arena. Toothless began running towards her but Hiccup stopped him. "Toothless no. I need you bud, they need us. We'll lock her up in the stables so no one can get to her." Her father growled at Hiccup over something he said. Astral just looked on in confusion. "I know I don't want to either, but it's to keep her safe. The moment we figure out what's going on we'll let her out but right now she can hardly move on her own with that tail injury." Toothless gave a low croon of defeat and went to pick Astral up by her scruff and began carrying her to one of the cages while Hiccup opened it. It wasn't till she was almost in she realized their intention. "No no no no!" She screamed and despite the extra pain it would cause she tried everything she could to escape, but her body just would not move. Her dad sat her down and jumped out before Hiccup shut the huge wooden gate and before Astral could painfully sprint out. She didn't make it though as it was locked shut and almost all light was blocked out. She could do nothing but whimper and cry out at having been caged. She deduced though that apparently the tribe was under attack.


	4. Ch4 Change Of Ownership

A long time passed. There was shouting and screaming all muffled through the wall like door that kept her caged. All she could do was just sit there and worry about what was going on. Most of all worry about her father. Some time had passed when suddenly with little warning her cage door opened up. The sudden barrage of light stung as her irises struggled to quickly adjust. Standing in front of the entrance was a man she did not recognize. He was the standard viking and his most notable feature was a large straight mustache that reminded Astral of Nigel Thornberry from the Wild Thornberrys cartoon. Behind him were other vikings she did not recognize and Astral was quick to deduce these were the vikings they were under attack by. Astral retreated to the corner of the cage. It was the only place to go that was farther from them and it wasn't like she could bolt past them not with the pain of her injury slowing her down.

"Oh my Thor! That's a baby Nightfury! Oh Alvin is going to pleased at this catch. Bag it up boys!" The man known to his people as Savage commanded his men. Only two moved in to capture Astral though. It was more than enough. As Astral bolted to try and get past them one of them just barely managed to catch her and he caught her by the tail. She screeched out in pain which seemed to only quicken them shoving her into a small bag. They carried her by the bag as they moved out. She assumed out of the arena but now could see nothing. She was enveloped by darkness. Whatever this bag was made out of it was thick. She cried out in terror and tried to rip up the bag with her claws with no success. Biting it wasn't an option as the cramped space afforded little movement. She couldn't twist her head enough to get a good grasp of the material. All the while her tail was screaming out at her over the uncomfortable position it was in. Eventually the pain wasn't worth the fruitless struggles and even her shouting stopped when they kept hitting the bag to get her to shut up. At some point she must have been carried to a boat as she felt rocking back and forth without stability. Time crawled on as she panicked over her predicament. She tried to calm her hyperventilating with marginal success. She'd even consider being someones pet if someone would please rescue her. Time dragged on and on but she was awoken from her trance when the instability of the sea changed to the stability of solid ground. It wasn't too long at least not compared to everything else before the bag that carried her was dropped. She quickly darted out of it only to find she had been dropped into a more traditional cage. This time there were cages all around some of them even occupied by humans. It appeared she'd been thrown into some sort of dungeon. While it was technically under grounded and seemed to be carved out of rock the passage through the cells was open to the sky. In some distant cells there even seemed to be some dragons. Whoever she was captured by it seemed prisoners were common place. Why did they capture her though. What purpose did they have for a hatchling dragon. The only thing she could come up with is they planned on eating her as some sort of delicacy.

A full day passed and nobody bothered her. Strangely both humans and dragons seemed rather chatty given their condition but she supposed you'd have to be to keep from going insane. Unfortunately that meant she was going to go insane herself. Astral hadn't been able to communicate in the first place but she could at least make commentary to herself on her environment, only now her environment was unchanging and there was nothing to do except realize she was getting hungry and thirsty. Every time a guard walked by she feared they were coming to her cage to kill her or something. Her fear increased exponentially when she heard a group of at least 3 people walking through the corridors. They came to stop at her cage and the man in the middle was huge looked a lot like Toothpic's father. Was he their leader, had he come to inspect his future desert?

"By my beard you caught an actual Nightfury. Well done boys." Alvin said with a little chuckle. "Hiccup won't be the only one now. Imagine me on a Nightfury. Shame it's so young. It's got strange eyes though. Is it sick?" The Vikings with him just shrugged. "Well make sure to train it boys. Make it do little tricks or something. I want to make it clear that we are in charge and it will do what we say or else." With that Alvin left with no intention to return till she was older.

As time passed Astral almost wished they did cook her and just end it. She didn't know what the after life was though if there was one. She'd gotten a second chance and she doubted there would be a third. Not that she could consider her current life a life. Her tail did eventually heal up but it provided no reprieve from pain. The humans wanted her to do stuff but she wasn't always sure what and they'd kick her and hurt her until she did something. Astral still wasn't sure it was what they actually asked but every week she had a new injury. The scariest was when they used their weapons to threaten her and they weren't shy to show how easily their blades cut her soft scales. Thankfully it was usually only shallow cuts but sometimes by accident they would go a little deeper. They thankfully left her alone when that happened and let her heal, but every time she wondered if death would take her as a result. All it took was a drunken miscalculation or an especially upset viking and they could cleave a whole limb off. Astral wished she could show them she was more than willing to cooperate especially when they waved their weapons around. She was as submissive as she could be but it wasn't enough for them. As time went by she was starting to learn some of their words and that made ever so slightly better. The dragon language though was still beyond her if they had a proper language beyond animalistic basic stuff.

With the sun rise Astral awoke to another day in prison or dungeon whatever same difference. She was slow to get moving though as had become the norm with their infrequent feedings. She couldn't tell if she was malnourished, if it was something else, or a combination. She'd long ago established on berk that despite being a reptile she was warm blooded however here she for some reason felt more cold blooded in the sense that in the mornings soaking up as much heat as she could in her cell gave her more energy and if she moved into the shade or it was cold her energy reserves seemed to drop. One cold month had gotten especially cold and she barely even thought about stuff. She was just un-moving black speck for the most part, only moving to eat and drink. Thankfully the vikings did leave her alone during this time.

Looking up at the sky she'd woken earlier than usual and the reason why became quickly apparent. Some dragons were in an intense either argument or vocal contest. She didn't know what reason they'd have for a vocal contest while caged though. They had their own territory that was their cage and there was no way to fight over a mate. She listened though out of pure boredom and as she listened something seemed to click. Every growl and sound they made there was the tone of the growl itself but there also seemed to be some deep sub tones of some sort she was only now beginning to notice. As they continued she listened and more and more stuff was starting to sound familiar and have meaning. There was a pattern developing in her mind and something just seemed to click. She tried replicating some of it. "Bruns...bons...bones...bones!" At her little experimenting the other dragons went completely silent for a moment.

"Did the Nightfury just speak for the first time?" A Gronckle asked the Nadder he'd been having a discussion with.

"She did but what is she trying to say?" The Nadder added. "Is she speaking for the first time?"

"Ime...trime...time." Astral continued experimenting just trying get it to come out right copying what the other dragons were doing. She still didn't know what she was saying just that she was saying something, she hoped.

"Hey can you understand us?" The Gronckle asked Astral and by coincidence understand was the word she worked on copying. "I guess she does. Strange time to suddenly start up. Shock must have finally worn off."

"I think she was just copying you." The Nadder said.

"She's a little old to not already know her first words though." The Gronckle replied unconvinced.

"Well depending on when she was captured maybe she never got the chance to learn maybe she never even had any parents. That's the first Nightfury I've ever seen. I had been told they'd gone extinct."

"Haven't you heard of the one over at that Human village where they get along. Maybe they are it's mother or father."

"That's just a rumor. Dragons and Humans getting along is absurd.I don't think she's even two yet, so both parents must still be around and that rumor says it's only one Nightfury." The Nadder said with conviction.

"Hey! Shut up!" One of the viking guards yelled at the dragons.

The moment Astral was secure Toothless rushed over to Hiccup charging right through him and tossing him on his back. He was eager to end this raid. Not only were they threatening the home of his friend but also the home of his daughter now. Taking to the air he quickly made it to edge of the island where outcast ships had docked and outcast vikings were making it up the beach or throwing grapples up the cliffs to make their way to the village. Meanwhile slowly at the edge of the village berk vikings were grouping and preparing a defense. All the dragon riders and their dragon partners were gliding above taking in what was going on. With all the attacks by dragons back when the Red Death was still around the teens had never really seen any viking verses viking battles as all the tribes were preoccupied with said dragon threat. The teens hovered mostly aimless waiting for Hiccup's instruction. Hiccup didn't know what to do either though. They couldn't just blast their ships as then the outcasts would have no way of retreating and he didn't want to have to kill anyone. Maybe he could isolate their leader but where was their leader? There were a few who were shouting orders but who was shouting at them to shout orders? By now the outcasts were about to engage with berk and the teens were shouting at Hiccup asking him what they should do. They all kinda just hovered confused as the two tribes engaged. As people they knew got wounded or worse some of the teens joined in out for blood. After his peers began fighting Toothless began charging up a plasma blast to join in and end this as quickly as possible but Hiccup begged him not too. Reluctantly Toothless listened.

As the fight went on Hiccup found an area he could help. During the fighting the dragons without riders were startled and couldn't tell who was who once the vikings had all massed together and started making disorienting noise with their weapons. So they attacked indiscriminately. And the berk vikings either those still having a grudge against dragons, or those thinking they had joined the outcasts, and who knows what other silly and logic less thoughts began attacking and killing the dragons. It became a three way war outcasts verses berk verses dragons. Hiccups mission was to stop the dragon part of it. Toothless was a little more helpful being able to actually tell the dragons to calm down and letting them know how to distinguish them. The latter wasn't very effective so they just worked on separating the dragons from the fight altogether.

Despite Hiccup's disagreement and wanting to check on the village first Toothless went straight for the training arena. The moment Astral was discovered to have gone missing Toothless knew she'd been captured by the outcasts. Nobody in berk would dare open that cage and decide to take her, he'd track them down in a heart beat. Using his head Toothless rammed into Hiccup and tossed him back unto his back once more. While Hiccup was still scrambling to get stable the angry Nightfury sprinted out the training arena and leapt into the air expecting his friend to take over on his prosthetic tail fin. Hiccup only barely got his own prosthetic to open the tail fin in time to keep from falling. The action was almost instinctual and only now was he given the chance to say anything about his kidnapping. "Whoa, where are we going bud?" Toothless thought that was obvious, he was going after his daughter. The only way he could think to communicate that while also letting out a little steam was to let out a nice bellowing roar. It came out more distressed than it did threatening though. "No first we make sure everyone is ok. There is going to be fall out with what happened with the dragons and we need to make sure it doesn't blow up." Hiccup said sternly. Toothless ignored making it out over the ocean. "No!" Hiccups said again. "We can find Astral once we make sure the village isn't going to implode on itself or rather explode on the dragons." With that he took control of the tail fins and forced Toothless into a sharp banking turn. Toothless would have none of that though and subverted the action by doing a barrel roll and plummeting down. "What good would it do to find Astral if she doesn't have a home to return to?" Hiccup shouted over the passing wind. Toothless opened his wings at the last moment gliding back to land and flinging Hiccup off before landing ungracefully himself. In his desperation he turned around and tried flying solo with no success. "I can't even talk to you, why are you doing this to me bud?" Toothless just gave another of his anguished roars in response. "Well I'm going to make sure the other dragons don't get executed by my father and as soon as that's all squared away I'll come back and we can search for Astral." With that Hiccup left.

Out of options there was only one other person that knew how to work his mechanical fin and as much as he hated her Toothless searched every corner of the village for Astrid. It would be so much easier to find her if he could just fly. Couldn't Hiccup at least have found him someone else to help him find his daughter while he went to placated the villagers over the latest drama. In the end he had no luck and instead turned to the dragons first of which was Stormfly.

"Stormfly you got to help me. The outcasts took my daughter. I can't fly after her and Hiccup isn't willing to help me."

Stormfly was taken aback by this. "He isn't? That seems out of character, why not?" She asked.

"I don't know something about the village and the dragons and some confusion that happened and trying to calm them down."

"Oh my I didn't even think about that. Do you think they'll kick us out?" Stormfly asked worried.

"I don't know but please could you follow after Astral for me." Toothless pleaded.

Stormfly though seemed to be zoning out on something else. "I got to go find Astrid now. I can't leave her alone, not with this going on."

With that the natter took off. Angry at having been ignored Toothless launched a plasma blast her way streaking right over her back and just past her head.

"What the blazes was that for?" The nadder asked with a squawk.

"Stormfly my daughter, I can't lose her. She's the only family I got the only other of my kind that exists. The Nightfury said solemnly.

"I'm sorry Toothless but I got to find my family too I got to find Astrid." With that she truly took off with no interceptions.

Finally after what seemed like forever Hiccup was on his back and behind him struggling to keep up were the other dragons on their human teens. He was upset it had taken so long to get moving but was glad for the extra help he was getting in going after his daughter. The only lead they had was she was captured by Outcasts so they would start searching on outcast island. The only one missing from the usual group was Hookfang and Snotlout. After having been deemed too aggressive and uncooperative Hookfang along with half the dragons on berk had been kicked out only with the diplomatic pleadings of Hiccup were any allowed to stay at all on top of no dragon executions. But it meant Snotlout was without a dragon and Toothless thought that was for the best. There could be no mistakes or insubordination on this mission.

Toothless wanted to just rush in, find his daughter, kill anyone in his way, and bring her back home. It was only thanks to Hiccup that his boiling blood didn't get him killed. Their first task was to simply observe. Finding a nice high cliff they landed upon it and simply watched the comings and goings of those below. Toothless knew this could take a lot of time he'd done something like this with Hiccup once before still he couldn't help but pace back and forth upon their ledge as he stared intently below looking for any openings any weaknesses in their defenses. Another question burned within his mind. How was watching them going to tell him where Astral was?

"I'm so bored." Tuffnut said right before slapping his sister in the face.

"There's nothing to do." Ruffnut agreed returning a slap to her brother. The two continued slapping each other in a lazy but in no way less painful manner each phrasing in different ways just how terrible this was and how they should do something and ten minuets hadn't even passed.

"Shut up or I'll toss you off the cliff." Astrid threatened the twins.

"Please!" They replied in unison. "Me first." Ruffnut requested. "No do me!" Tuffnut interjected.

"Why in Thor's name, couldn't we have left them behind with Snotlout." Astrid complained to Hiccup.

"Because that leave just you me and Fishlegs and we're going to need everyone we can. I would have brought Snotlout along if we could have." Hiccup answered his tone rather neutral and matter of factly spoken.

"I would have been fine with just the three of us. Or just the two of us." Astrid added.

"I still think she could do better." Ruffnut threw in a comment in reference to an earlier scenario in dragon training. It pissed Astrid off enough to chase Ruffnut down and teach her a lesson or two. Soon enough Tuffnut joined in and the twins formed a game out of getting beat up by Astrid.

Hiccup released a deep sigh "The gods still hate me."

Those that were left realized they were on borrowed time when one day they woke up and the twins had vanished. They had to come up with a plan and now.

Gliding down upon their dragons the teens touched down where they thought the most likely place to keep prisoners was. They bust open the door and charged in hoping to get what they came for and get out. Unfortunately the building they had chose was home to the majority of off duty Outcast warriors. Acting quickly their dragons spewed fire in front of them blocking line of sight and preventing the Outcasts from following as they made their escape back out where they entered. The commotion they had caused alerted everyone around of their presence. Quickly they took off to regroup all except Toothless who refused to take to the air. Every Outcast that approached he knocked out trying not to kill them as he knew the human on his back wouldn't stop complaining about it for a very long time. How badly he wanted to sink his teeth into them though. "Toothless we need to go now! There's too many of them. Toothless continued his revenge rampage and before long Alvin himself along with many bola wielding Outcasts appeared tossing their weapons of entrapment at the duo. Toothless managed to dodge or swipe away all cumming his way but one ensnared his rider pining Hiccup's arms to his sides and knocking him off Toothless. Jumping over to Hiccup Toothless shielded his friend with his own body. Outcasts after Outcasts tried to pile on top of the Nightfury to pin him but each one was batted away with a wing, claw, or tail. Then Alvin was right in front of him. Leaping away from Hiccup Toothless pounced upon the large viking pinning him to the ground. Alvin's eyes widened in fear as Toothless began collecting the gasses in his throat to fire upon him. "No Toothless don't!" Hiccup cried from his restraints. Toothless would not listen though. This was not Hiccup's father and was the man responsible for kidnapping his daughter. "Toothless please!" Hiccup pleaded. His friends pleas reached him and Toothless backed down. A familiar scene played out as he got pinned to the ground by vikings piling on top of him before getting knocked out by a hammer with a hit to the side of his head.

Toothless woke up in a cell with nobody in sight. Not his daughter, not his rider, not even other prisoners. Time dragged on day after day with meager food and nothing to keep him entertained. He fell into a deep depression as he lost everyone that was mattered to him and it was all his own fault.

Two large men sat in a dark room across each other with nothing but a table separating them. The intensity between them threatened to erupt the very ground beneath them. "What it'll be Stoic. It's a win for both of us. You pay the ransom and get yer boy back and never hear from us again seeing as we'll have the funds to feed ourselves." Stoic stared at Alvin with a glare that could almost kill. The Outcast leader went unanswered for a time. "You'll get your gold traitor but you will regret this." With that Stoic stood up and exited the room. "Ohhh don't be like that Stoic this could be the start of healthy trade between us." Alvin said before laughing in his signature almost stereotypical evil laugh.


	5. Ch5 How To Train Your Daughter

((My apologies on the late chapter. I do not plan on making my updates a monthly occurrence. I would much prefer bi-weekly. Heck I'd prefer to get pretty far into the story before the next HTTYD movie comes out, but fat chance of that happening. I did read the review but didn't feel it appropriate to respond in the form of a reveiw. Anyways, sorry and enjoy.))

The sound of foot steps alerted Astral that some of her captors were headed her way. She hoped they weren't coming for her but she knew they likely were. She was already huddled against the far corner of the cage up against the cold rock hoping they might not see her or didn't feel like going the extra few feet to the back of the cage to grab her, anything really. As they got ever closer she hid her head under her wing. Maybe they would think she was asleep and not want to bother her or something. She wished she was asleep. Most the time she was just to pass the time.

Hiccup, Toothless, and the usual gang of adolescents came to retrieve their little Nightfury. After Stoic secured their release he nearly dragged them back to berk leaving behind the little devil that had caused this recent mess. Before Hiccup could advance he hesitated after being shocked at how much bigger she was. She was already three times the size as when he last saw her and that was only five months ago. His surprise worn off Hiccup reached forward to grab Astral while calling out her name to try and reassure her. Both Hiccup and Toothless noticed the hatching stiffen in response. Toothless brushed Hiccup aside and approached Astral alone. Cooing to reassure her in a proper dragon manner.

"Dad?" Astral questioned in proper dragon speech. She lifted her wing to verify with her own eyes. Toothless had initially planned on scooping her up right away but her speaking left him stunned. She just called him dad. He missed her first words. He was both endlessly disappointing and proud at the same time at having been called dad as if to reassure him that his adoption of her was not one sided.

"What's wrong bud?" Hiccup asked noticing the unusual hesitation in his dragon.

Astral was still too stunned to do anything but Toothless quickly got over his own paralyzation. He scooped her up in his wing and held her against him in an embrace purring in sorrowful joy to have his daughter back. Unexpectedly Astral found herself purring in response. She licked Toothless a few times to show her own happy relief the only other way she knew how. In kind Toothless removed his wing from Astral and began licking her into the ground. Never before in her life this or previous was she so beyond welcoming to being covered in saliva.

"So you can understand me now?" Toothless asked. That was probably the only thing he could have said that Astral understood. Well only one word of it but she could guess the rest. "Understand. No." She replied.

"Ok you two. We can enjoy warmer welcomes when we're back on berk. Let's go." Astrid interjected. Toothless gave her a nasty look but went along with it anyways. He grabbed Astral by her scruff and began carrying her back to the ship. "No no no." Astral complained, but her dad was not having any of it. She didn't really have the energy to complain any further.

Once they had made it on the ship Toothless found a nice area to rest that was both out of the way so he wouldn't bother anyone and hopefully in kind nobody would bother him, all the while still being able to seeing everyone and keep tabs on them. The larger Nightfury gently let Astral down on the wooden deck of the ship and curled himself around her not giving her any avenue of escape, not that Astral even though of trying. There was nowhere she'd rather be right now.

Those two were the only ones celebrating right now. Stoic was currently in a locked glare with Hiccup. Hiccup attempted to coax some conversation out of him. Get him to say anything. The silent stare was extremely uncomfortable. "So uh...What did you have to do to get us out?" He asked ignorant. Stoics glare only intensified. Eventually Stoic left to attend to other matters leaving Hiccup without an explanation.

"Great! Not only are relations with vikings and dragons reversing but my dad hates me again. The gods have always hated me. Is there anything that doesn't hate me?" Hiccup nearly yelled in frustration.

Astrid made her presence known by attempting to comfort him. "Toothless doesn't hate you. I don't hate you."

Hiccup locked eyes with her and his eyes did not speak of much comfort. "I'm the reason Toothless can't fly on his own. I did that to him. And you only started liking me after we kidnapped you. Right before that; and I mean on the same day. You hated my guts!"

That stung Astrid. What was Hiccup implying. She did not understand whatever weird funk he was in right now. Nor did she know how to help him. Toothless was a sure fire way to make him feel better but he was busy with Astral. Astrid realized something and couldn't hold back a short laugh. They almost had a love triangle thing going on. The most important thing to herself was Hiccup and won her time priority every time. The most important thing to Hiccup was Toothless and like wise always won Hiccups attention whenever it was a contest between me or him. Toothless on the other hand, his was Astral which broke the triangle. Course before Astral was along it was Hiccup. Didn't that make her the odd one out? She would have to change that. Now that Toothless had Astral. Maybe this was her chance to completely win him over. Hiccup though already took off. He didn't think Astrid was taking him very seriously when her response was to laugh. 

The first thing Astral did when they had finally returned to berk was to sleep in the comfort of home. It was the best rest she had in a long time. Sure she tried to sleep as often as she could while captive but it was always a restless uncertain sleep. Now she could sleep soundly knowing she was safe and reunited with her father.

Astral woke up a little startled. It was dark, must be night. What tortures would this day hold. Yet she felt well rested, warm, and very safe. Oh right! She'd been rescued. The dark was really just her fathers wing keeping her lightly pinned between wing and his body and blocking out the light. Was it just her or did it seem a little more cramped under her father's wing than usual. Wiggling her way out as best she could without waking her living blanket, she found it to be mid day. Strange that her father was still asleep at such a time. He must have been really worried about her. It felt great to be back in Toothpick's room. She didn't really want to go anywhere but hoped up to the windowsill to take a good look outside. Something was off. It looked like spring was beginning to subtly change the place. Last she remembered it was still fall. Where the heck had winter gone? Surely she would have noticed the change of seasons even while in captivity. Astral backed away from the window in disbelief and lost her footing when the windowsill came to an end. She fell to the ground on her back and squeaked in some pain but mostly shock. That fall had a lot more weight behind it. Little did she know that was exactly what it was.

Toothless shot awake and went over to her in a single short jump and began thoroughly inspecting her as Astral shifted herself back on her feet. "Sorry, fell." Astral apologized for waking him.

Toothless took a moment to remember his daughter could speak now. "No need to apologize little one. As long as you are ok." Toothless crooned.

"Apologize?" Astral asked not really understanding what he was saying.

"That's right no need to apologize. Accidents happen." Toothless tried to reassure again.

Astral realized she wasn't using her body language right and tried again this time. "No understand apologize." She titled her head slightly while looking up at him to show her confusion.

"Oh umm apologize. It means to express regret for an action and usually also ask forgiveness." Toothless explained.

Astral tilted her head the other way having no idea what he was saying.

"Uhhh" How could he explain this in simpler terms. "Sorry is apologize. Don't sorry. Don't apologize."

"Sorry." Astral apologized for apologizing not really catching herself. Toothless laughed and gave her a good lick.

Every day now she spent learning the dragon language with her dad and even when he thought she'd had enough and it was time for a rest Astral would keep going, keep asking about what words were used for what. That one time after she woke up the first time since getting home reminded her that though there was a dragon language and she had learned some of it, she still couldn't really communicate much at all. After so long of being basically a mute she was so eager to soak it all up.

Things had not gotten much better since getting home for Hiccup. His father was still about as angry as he'd ever seen him. To make matter worse things with the dragons had only gotten worse since he left. There was even in incident of a resident dragon attacking a viking for the meat he was carrying which turned into a few vikings showing up as back up and fending off the dragon. Old memories began to resurface for both groups and of course this incident did nothing to improve Stoic's mood.

Worse was he had to burden this all alone. His dragon had understandably grown even more overprotective of Astral probably too much so. He'd hardly move more than a wing's length away from her most the time preferring to be far closer than that literally hovering over her almost everywhere. They've also been making a lot of noise. Seems Astral was learning how to communicate. He couldn't help but wonder if dragons had anything remotely as complicated as their language. He knew they were a bit smarted than most gave them credit for. Heck Stormfly and Toothless especially seemed to always know exactly what was going on. He couldn't help but doubt it though. He couldn't see how their series of growls and other noises could possibly translate into anything more than basic primal language.

Hiccup resolved to go talk to his dragon. He needed his bud now more than ever. For all he knew his father could outcast all the dragon tomorrow, including Toothless. It was so heartbreaking to think about it, he just wasn't going to think about it.

It wasn't hard to find the duo of Nightfuries. Never was unless they didn't want to be found. Once Astral noticed him she broke away from her conversation and ran over to Hiccup rubbing her head against his good leg...well only leg.

"Guess what I found out." Astral asked rhetorically. "I found out your name is Hiccup. I still think you should be Toothpick. Even like my dad. Toothpick and Toothless. Pfft Hiccup" Astral proceeded to laugh.

Hiccup found a smile creeping up on his face at the excitable little Nightfury. Though a little less little every day. It was crazy how fast she was growing.

But then Toothless approached and his smile faded. He collapsed on to his dragon hugging him around the neck. "Oh Toothless. I need you. I know you don't want to leave Astral's side after what happened but bud if things keep deteriorating, dragons may not have a home here anymore. I don't want to lose you. I love Astral but ever since she has entered our life you've felt distant.

Toothless crooned to Hiccup like he would to Astral to try and comfort him. He knew thing in the village were getting a little shaky but Hiccup was right. He'd been so occupied with Astral he hadn't really been paying attention to him. Hiccup was more than a best friend and now that he realized he hasn't been there for him he felt bad.

Astral didn't understand what the human was saying. That hadn't been apart of her lessons, but she did sense the shift of mood.

After some time of embracing each other Toothless separated. He had a dilemma. He needed to look after Astral. She was growing and learning remarkably fast but she was still a hatchling and they were the last of their species. But on the other paw he needed to help and support Hiccup too. This village was starting to feel crowded and noisy now. He picked Astral up by her scruff and gestured Hiccup to jump on his back. They went flying for a bit before landing on a remote sea stack away from the island of Berk. There they could relax. There they could think. Except Astral of course she just played around. At least Toothless didn't have to worry about Outcasts coming in and scooping her up. They all sat in silence for the most part enjoying each others company. But Hiccup had more to say.

"Why can't they see the dragons don't mean any harm. Their just following their instincts. If you take the time to learn about them then you understand them. It's simple but noooo. Why do that when you can swing an axe at it instead. That'll fix it!"

Toothless did his best to calm and comfort his rider as he proceeded to rant about his father. It had been too long since they were alone like this. They both missed it.

After returning to berk Toothless had made a decision. He had to make sure Astral was ok but also needed to attended to his rider. He couldn't do both very well so instead he'd teach Astral how to take care of herself. How to be a dragon. Judging by her mental intelligence and size she was more than ready for it. She was already the size of and had the mental capacity of a 6 year old hatchling despite being shy of only a year old. Probobly even more mentally. The problem was to do it right would take a long time. It had to be done eventually anyways and with how fast Astral was continuing to defy nature it should be sooner rather than later. He would have to take Astral away from the village and they would be away for a long time such a long time in fact he had no doubt Hiccup would think he'd abandoned him. It pained him to no end to think of that. First thing was first though. He was going to need that automated tailfin back.

It wasn't too hard to get Hiccup to realize he wanted another of those fins made. What was hard was saying goodbye after it was finished and attached. "What's wrong bud?" Hiccup asked worriedly. Toothless did not respond and instead took Astral by her scruff and took to the air. 

It was a long journey to wherever her father was taking her. Gave her a good long time to think. They eventually landed on a rather large island probably about as large as Berk. "Dad what are we doing?" Astral asked still out of the loop about what was going on.

"Berk is a bad place to raise a Nightfury. I'm going to raise you to be a proper dragon?" Toothless answered.

That kinda made sense to Astral. Changing subjects a little it was time she asked a question that had been weighing on her for awhile especially on the flight over. "Dad...where is mom?"

Toothless cringed. That was not a question he was hoping to answer any time soon. "She's...not around." Was the best he could come up with.

"She's dead?" Astral asked with a tinge of sadness infecting her voice.

The heck. She was way too young to be already wrapping her head around life and let alone death.

"No and yes. We are the last of our species and I'm also not your dad. I adopted you. The egg that was you has been around for many years. We were sure... No you couldn't have hatched. Yet here you are.

Astral was sad but also found this ironic. In her last life she had never known her father and now in this one she wouldn't know her mother...and her father actually. That's fine. Astral had no doubt Toothless has been more of a father than her birth father could have ever been.

"Dad. I'm hungry." Astral said. She didn't know where to get food now that they weren't in the village. Toothless acquired a mischievous look that did nothing to put Astral at ease.

"I guess you'll just have to hunt something then." Toothless answered.

Astral quickly learned how serious he was. She failed every hunt she went on. Every fish swam out of her paws before she could claw into them. Every rabbit or squirrel darted away before she even got close. Giving chase didn't help much either. The bunnies would plunge into their burrows which she was too large to fit in now. Would have been a different story six months ago. The squirrel darted up trees and she could follow them up till they jumped to another tree. Every day she failed Toothless would give her only a couple fish to sustain her. It didn't take long till she found herself bathing in the sun to get the energy to do anything.

"First lesson." Toothless explained. "Dragons are warm blooded. Nightfuries though are the pinnacle of evolution. When food becomes scarce our bodies shift to cold blooded to preserve our bodies and food as much as possible. As you've noticed you need to soak up heat to use that as energy and the cold will sap that energy away. It takes about a month to transition from one to the other. Once food becomes abundant again you'll transition back to warm blooded. Don't worry though I'll feed you more to make sure you go back. We can get more done that way and I'll take a more active role in helping you hunt."

Astral was so glad when she was finally back to being warm blooded. Being cold blooded was annoying as heck.

"Second lesson." Toothless began to rant again. "A downed dragon is a dead dragon. Flight is our most useful tool for hunting, for fleeing, for traveling, and for just plain having fun. It's pretty common for a dragon who has lost the ability to fly to lose their will to live. Keep your wings and unique to our species your fins protected. Your wings is where your power comes from obviously. Your base fins keep you incredibly stable and can be used for precise small corrections which gives us our legendary never miss accuracy. Your tail fins are used for steering. The fact we have specialized fins for this gives us an agility advantage in the sky over all other dragons, but again with the downside that should something happen to them you'll be grounded."

"What happened to your fin dad?" Astral interrupted.

Toothless sighed. Partly missing his fin and partly not wanting to reveal it was Hiccup who caused it. "Not long ago literally a couple of months before you hatched dragons and vikings were at war. During a food raid one night one of the humans managed to hit me with a rope with stones attached that tied my limbs up including my wings. I crashed in a forest and one of the trees I hit tore my fin off. Hiccup saved my life. He fed me while I was trapped and with his help even allowed me to fly again.

That explained a lot for Astral. Why Toothless and Hiccup were so close. Why dragons and humans seemed like friends yet it just didn't feel right. It wasn't suppose to be. The humans probably won the war or something and the dragons were subjugated. Then again after so recent a war they weren't that mistreated. In any case Hiccup was an exception. He was different from the rest and shared a special bond with her father. 

Toothless interrupted Astral's thoughts by yelling at her to spread her wings and fins. She already knew how to glide and before long she was flying. Instincts seemed to just tell here what she was suppose to do but only the basics. In any case it was exhilarating. Rocketing into the sky she quickly made her way above the clouds and leveled out. She'd bank and touch her wing against the cloud like she was skimming water. Everyone had the dream of flying but the most even ever got was a plane ride or a wing suit. Yet here she was flying with her own natural gifts her direction and maneuvers hers to choose. Instead of being rolled by a plane she was rolling with the winds like she was of the sky itself. An engine and propeller didn't move her forward rather it was the wind currents and thermals. It was like swimming in the water except light and far quicker.

When Toothless realized she wasn't coming down any time soon he went up to join her. At first they just enjoyed the thrill of flying together but then Toothless would start to give his daughter pointers.

Sadly Astral's wings were so tired now they felt like they wanted to just give out. This was her first flight and didn't have the muscle developed to sustain it for any longer. She came in for a hard landing flipping over a couple times from the momentum. She quickly stood up albeit wings drooping and panting. "That *pant* was *pant* amazing!"

Toothless landed closely behind far more gracefully and chuckled at his daughter's euphoria.

It took a long time before Astral was ready to learn anything else. She was having too much fun in the air. Eventually Toothless managed to wrestle her to the ground figuratively.

"Leason three." Toothless began. "Fire breathing. For most dragons it's mainly a defense but for us it's also an offense and can be used to stun a group of fish for easy pickings. Again like in all other ways we are the most evolved. Nadders like to believe they have the hottest fire but they don't really get a chance to feel our steady flame. It's useful to warm your nesting for the night but otherwise our plasma blast as some call it is far more effective. For now though let's just focus on a sustained flame. Hold your breath and try to breath out with your other lung the one you don't breath air with."

It took a bit of trying and looking goofy like she was about to puke or something before she managed to breath out a stream of gas.

"Good now there are a couple of plates below your tongue. Retract your teeth and press down with your tongue. They make a quiet click and create a spark that will ignite the gas. Try to blow out some gas, ignite it, and continue fueling it.

Astral managed to get that down on her first try. Though she cut it a little short for surprise. Not only could she fly but she can light what ever was in front of her with fire like it was a natural thing, because it was! When Cruinne offered to make her a dragon she thought it might be kinda neat but now she was really experiencing just how amazing it was.

Their training continued over the course of two and a half years. That was when something Toothless did not expect and was not prepared for, happened.

Astral had grown considerably since they had first arrived at this island. She was already near her father's size. She had finally gotten a look at herself a few times in a fresh water lake. She noted her purple eyes and how much sleeker she looked compared to her father. She looked a lot like him too like she could be his daughter though that was hard to judge without out any other Nightfuries as a reference point. This morning her body was changing in different ways. She was hot and bothered. Thoughts flowing freely through her mind the likes of which she had not had since her past life. A need was overwhelming her and the longer it went unstated the more it tortured her physically and mentally.

Astral nudged her father awake. It was still a decent ways before Nightfall which is when they usually woke up these days. "Dad I don't know what to do." This was the most embarrassing moment of her life and probably her previous too to have to seek her dad's help.

Toothless sniffed her and was relieved to find her scent wasn't affecting him. He was worried since they weren't blood related which just caused more question but those weren't for now. "This isn't right you shouldn't be having your first heat till at least another six years. Though you also shouldn't be this big. There isn't anything I can do to help you baby. Only by claiming a mate could you erm 'fix' it."

"This isn't going to be a monthly thing is it?" Astral asked worried.

"Oh heavens no. Though maybe we wouldn't be basically already extinct if it was. No it will last two weeks and will occur twice a year once during spring and once during fall." Toothless explained.

"And you're sure there aren't any other Nightfuries. Were the last? I just have to suffer through this?" Astral whined.

"Yes, I'm sure." Toothless said with grief and dipping his head down in defeat."

After another six months they decided it was time to head back to berk. Astral could hunt on her own and defend herself. She knew what it meant to be a dragon and to be a Nightfury. Though he had observed some troubling comments from Astral about humans. It seems despite having been hatched after the war she was bitter with them. Perhaps as a result of her captivity. He tried to get her to talk about what had happened while she was on outcast island, but she refused to talk.

Arriving back at berk Toothless swiftly began looking for his Hiccup. He missed him like one might miss their mate. Instead the due of Nightfuries were greeted with giant flying rocks and spears being hurtled their way.


End file.
